Common term for an array of habitats and other installations all occupying the same orbit around a central body.

Orbital bands may be found around any body of sufficient mass, including stars, planets, moons, Kuiper objects, and asteroids. While the exact number of installations needed to qualify as an orbital band varies from polity to polity, a common standard is that a given orbit has at least one habitat per degree of arc. While this standard represents the most minimal orbital band, in larger and more developed systems, thousands or even millions of habitats may occupy a band, and multiple bands may encircle the central body.

Orbital (political unit) - Text by M. Alan KazlevOriginally, a nation state or city state based on habitats in orbit around Old Earth. Over the course of the Interplanetary Age the term came to be used for any such state in Solsys. By early First Federation times the term Orbital was used more broadly for any independent or semi-independent state based on a hab in orbit around a planet.